John Gunter: Hi, we wanna thank you for being a part of this. It doesn't translate as well, but singing has been amazing this morning. Great job, Tyler. We're just thankful to be together. We have started a new series, we started last week, called God Revealed, when we talked about God being holy.
And again, this is understanding this series is to understand God as scripture reveals God. And we talked a little bit about it last week, where oftentimes, what we do is we we start kind of telling God who He is, or who we want God to be, instead of understanding who God actually is. And I am about to lose my my iPad keeps timing out for whatever reason. I will try not to interrupt this as much as as possible. But again, last week we saw that God is holy, which means he is completely set apart.
He is not like us. As as Kendrick said just a few minutes ago, we are imperfect people trying to imitate a perfect God, and and we understand we are not perfect. But God also understands that, doesn't he? He sent his son to die on the cross for us, understanding that we are imperfect. And so, one of the questions we're going to to kind of ask today is, what is it that a holy God does with sin?
Okay? And, we are talking today about God is just. Now, to begin, I think we all have a built in sense of justice. We all have a desire for things to go right. Now, it might be more skewed, and I want everything to go right for me, but we do have a sense of, I want things to go correctly.
Actually, I'm glad Logan is not in here, but Logan has a really strong sense of what is right and wrong, and if he feels that he has been wronged in this situation, you can't change his mind. You can go on it hasn't been that long ago, but you can go on Facebook, and we have a picture of Logan and Evan sitting on a couch when they were just a few years younger. And Evan is smiling like this, and Logan is looking like this. I mean, and that is and I can tell you the mood they were in just by the picture, because that that is Logan's sense of something has gone wrong, I have been wronged, and it needs to be corrected. You ever been there?
And so, when we talk about this, we want things to be made right, we want evil to be addressed, you know, the things that are going wrong in our life, we want that to be fixed. We want fairness. Don't you want fair in your life? But how quickly do we have to tell our kids, life is not fair. And you know that.
Everybody said it was such excitement, didn't you? There. I know what the answer is, but I don't want to say it. Right? Because we want it to be fair, but if it involves us, do we really want it to be fair, or do we want grace, and patience, and understanding?
So often, if we're looking at if I'm looking at your situation, or or someone else's situation, especially somebody I don't know, I probably have a tendency of being a little more judgmental. Like, they're just bad people, you need to make sure the full weight and effect of the law needs to come down on them. And again, when I do something, I would prefer grace and mercy. Can we delay justice for a time? Can I have some more time?
And so, again, we prefer justice for others and mercy for myself. And so that that tension is not new, but it does kind of lead us to what I think is a deeper question. Again, what does God do with sin? And, Kendrick stepped all over my sermon this morning when he started here. Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned fall for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Now, that should be a verse that we cling to, knowing that God understands us. Because often, I believe the stumbling block in our path is is is ourselves. Beating ourselves down, if I knew better, I shouldn't have done that, I I can't believe I struggled with this. Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is an apostle.
He doesn't say, I've gotten it beaten, I'm perfect, you know, why don't you guys fall in line? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so, before we talk about what God does, we have to be clear of what the problem is. All of us have sinned, and I think we have done a good job in this church of of really laying that out. All of us.
Me, John, as a minister, all the elders, the people who teach bible class, the deacons, every one of us are sinners in need of a savior. I don't think we need to hide that. Right? We don't embrace it and say, hey, I sinned, come join in my sin. Right?
That's not what we're doing. But we should admit, just like Paul admits, for all, in parentheses, including myself, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not most, not some, every one of us. And so, it's it's not about comparison, it's about reality. And and I think you get and fall short of the glory of God, that's kind of like a to me, that's kind of like a a continuing thing.
Because even when we sin and we ask for forgiveness, and we repent of that sin, and and God forgives us, right, he is faithful to forgive, there's gonna be another time where we mess up. Right? There's another time when we're gonna fall short of the glory of God. Again, we talked last week that God is holy, and we want to imitate that, but we all fall short of his holiness. And so, when Scripture talks about sin, it is not talking about little minor flaws, or personality issues, or even bad habits.
When Scripture talks about sin, it is talking about a condition that we know we have. We all have different struggles. Now, if I said, hey, we're going take a few minutes and everybody just share your struggles, we'd all start squirming a little bit. Right? Because it's okay to talk about it in general, I sin, you sin, okay.
But if I start saying, alright, let's get specific, we might go, okay, what do we do? But God knows, doesn't He? God knows what you're struggling with, and He understands the condition. And so, we have to understand in this who God is as a holy God, and who we are as sinners in need of a savior. In Ecclesiastes seven twenty, surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
That seems a little pessimistic, but it's the truth. Right? None of us are going to be perfect. I'm probably the closest, but none of us are I'm just kidding, by the way. Katie Katie's gonna be angry.
Sorry, honey. She doesn't like that I joke because she's like, somebody's going to believe you. They think you're serious. I do not believe that, by the way. But there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
This is not selective, this is not being mean, this is everyone in our room, this is what happens. And so, when we compare ourselves, we shouldn't be doing this, we shouldn't be comparing, well, I'm on par with brother so and so, or at least I'm doing better than her. No? Uh-uh. We all are in the same condition as, again, sinners in need of a savior, trying to serve a holy, perfect God.
And so, when we compare, I think we often say things like, I'm not that bad, or I'm better than most. It's kind of like if we're above average, we're comfortable, which I don't think we should be, even if you thought that. Or God understands. But if God is just, if God desires to be putting everything right, then sin cannot be ignored, can it? We don't ignore it, we don't overlook it, we don't just say, hey, we're all sinners, let's go about it.
Sin cannot be ignored. And so, to continue our our reading here, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a what, church? As a gift. What is a gift? Do you pay for a gift for yourself?
Yeah. Some of us do. Yeah. K. This is a free gift.
Right? By His grace as a gift through the redemption. So what has been done here? I am going to fight this thing the whole time, and I don't know what to do about it. And so what has been done here is Jesus has done the work for you.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation. We don't like that word. I'll explain it just a minute. By his blood to to be received by what? Faith.
This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sin. And so, God does not just pretend sin did not happen. He has to do something about it to be a just God. He can't ignore it. Something has to be done.
He has to respond to it. And so, what you get in this is verse, in verse 24, you get justified. This means to be declared right. And again, not because we fixed it, what was the rest of that? And are justified by his grace as a gift.
Grace is unmerited, is what we used to say, unmerited favor. It means you didn't do anything to get it. This is a gift from God. Okay? We also get redemption.
Redemption is a is a word that has value or cost. Okay? It means something was paid. Something was required. Sin is not just overlooked, it is paid for.
It is dealt with at a cost. And then, we get the hard word in verse 25, propitiation. This is the hardest word, but most important. It means a sacrifice that deals with sin, a payment that is what justice requires in this moment. And so, God does not just overlook our sin, He doesn't lower His standard and say, well, it's just John, that's who John is.
He doesn't pretend it doesn't happen, he doesn't look the way, he deals with it in this way. And the way God showed his love for us was to send Jesus, his one and only son, to die on the cross for us to do all of this, to get the free gift of his grace. Can somebody say amen this morning? Amen. That is what we get to experience because of God's love.
He loved us, he understands us. And again, because we understand that about God, means that's the way we should look at sin too. We don't want to overlook it, we don't wanna be casual about it, we wanna be serious about our sin, but understand we serve a loving and gracious God. Kendrick prayed for grace and mercy this morning. I want that to be a part of every one of my prayers because I want that.
And I will challenge you, don't pray that just for yourself, start praying that for your brothers and sisters too. Start praying that for the the person that cut you off in traffic that you're really perturbed with right now. Because I I don't want justice just for me, I I I want I want God to to love them and to to take care of them, to have them to have a right relationship with them. One of the hardest things I have sometimes is people wanna know, alright, what about this situation? These people over here, and what if they believe differently, are they going to heaven or are they going to hell?
And I think we're wrong if if we have any other thought other than, I sure hope they're going to heaven, instead of condemning everybody to hell. I've been a part of plenty of places that wanted to decide that for everybody. That we desire everyone to experience this. Don't you want them to experience this? Again, we can if we're just excited about this for ourselves, we've missed the point, haven't we?
This is what God has done for the entire world. Everyone has sinned, all have fallen short, and this is how God chose to fix it. And it says, you're justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It says, this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. God is dealing with sin.
In Isaiah 53 verse five, but he was pierced for our transgression. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
I think scripture understands this. Right? Every one of us has chosen our own way at times. And I would say, even times when we we felt like we were following the way of God. Because we really, in the back of our mind, had this desire that we didn't acknowledge, and we kind of followed that.
If God would just bless this path, that'll be okay. Right? And so, God understands who we are. And so, if we often think, and we probably do, God will just forgive us, or it's not that serious, I think we're a little off the path. I think we need to take our sins seriously and deal with it.
As in, alright, I need to confront it in my life, I need to repent of that, I need to confess that to God. Guess what? God already knows. So sometimes that feels hard that I need to admit that, right? Even though God already knows what's going on, that I need to confess that I need to be serious about it instead of just being all casual, because this was God's response to this, that God would send His son to die.
How many of you have children in here? Can you think about sending one of them to die for a bunch of people that are going be real ungrateful at times? Yeah. And when you start connecting that personally, it starts to feel a little more weighty, doesn't it? I don't want to give up my kids.
When I moved here, I had hair, and I think this is all because of them. But I don't want to give up my kids, but God so loved the world again that He desired this for us. And being just, he couldn't just overlook our sin and say, Hey, yeah, It had to be paid for. And he did this by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us. So, let's ask this question this morning.
How can God judge sin and still have sinners? How can we do that and God be just? We're going back to Romans three, starting in verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show that God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sin. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
I hope you you caught some of that there, and especially in verse 26, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who works hard and takes all the credit for what he is doing in his life, who does more than everybody else and is kind of head and shoulders a better person. Is that what it says? So that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And so, I I think at times we can we can read something like this and and think, okay, well, that's just somebody wanting to be lazy. We mean faith.
And and we've had sermons on faith, we've talked about faith a lot, and faith is is this weighty thing. It is not simply a mental exercise, and do you believe? Yes or no? Faith is that I believe so much that I put trust in Jesus. And because I trust Jesus, I decide to follow them, and you keep following that out, and faith is this weighty thing where I care about sin.
It's not that I just believe in Jesus, but I wanna follow him. And he says, I don't need to be living this way. And so I began to desire to live another way, and all of a sudden, God is working in my life, changing my life, molding me, and shaping me into someone else. So that he might be just and the justifier. He's gonna make it right.
He is going to make it right. You catch that? Not us. He is going to make it right, the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now, if you walk out of here saying, John said, all you gotta do is believe, you've missed it.
Because the weight of faith is enormous, that I trust in a way that my life has to be changed. It has to shift. It has to be different. Paul says, did not do this Paul did this God did this to show his righteousness. That means God is showing something about himself.
That that God is saying, okay, to to to be righteous in this way, this is what I need to do. It said God had passed over sins before, and that doesn't mean that that he ignored them. Right? God is continuing to deal with this, but it just means he delayed this judgment that is going to come. And so, the cross answers the question, was God overlooking sin?
No. He was preparing to deal with it, and deal with it appropriately, and once and for all. Does that mean that you and I will never sin? Anybody want to answer that? Of course not.
I will sin, my kids will sin, you will sin. But God has given us a way, because at the cross, the sin is judged in that moment, justice is satisfied, and that mercy that we crave was extended to us. God said, here is a way out. You don't have to be under that sin anymore because of what I have done for you, that he could be the justifier of the one who has faith. And so, God is just, and sin is punished.
God is merciful because sinners are saved. Amen? In Deuteronomy thirty two and four, the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he, and that is telling us about who God is. And I know if you seek justice, if you want fairness, this is important to you, God will make everything right.
And I think a lot of times, our our issue is not that we don't know that, but we really want justice right now. But again, that that normally goes to, I want justice for you because you wronged me. I don't necessarily want that for myself if I do something. I last week, on the way back from coaching soccer over in Baytown, we came to the intersection of Eagle Drive and I 10. Avoid it at all cost, if you can, because I was in the far right lane, you have the option of turning or going straight.
The guy beside me in the left lane is a turn only lane, he did not realize that. And so, right before he hit me, I saw him in my side mirror and I was able to straighten out enough to where he just barely got me. And in that moment, I was not happy. I have babied in my car, I think Evan's gonna get it. And so, I've really babied it, but in that moment, you know, the first thought, unfortunately, that comes to mind is, I want justice and I want it now.
You know, take care of this, let's make it right, let's do it. Then it took an hour for the trooper to get there, and I was able to breathe. Okay. This guy is not from here, he didn't see it, and even people from here are doing this, aren't they Kendrick? The trooper that helped us, he said, I personally have worked at least five wrecks right here.
So, if you take anything else from this lesson, get in the left lane. I remember that. I don't remember what he said about God, but I remember the left lane. Alright. I want fairness, not not just for me, and I hope I hope that's the case.
And often, it takes a little time, but I hope that's what we desire because that's what God desires for us. Because all His ways are perfect, He is just. He doesn't compromise who He is, He doesn't have to change, He doesn't have to breathe like John does and take a minute. God is perfect, and following Him is difficult at times, and we understand that. He doesn't choose between justice or mercy, he's able to do both.
He's able to give us both the same time. And so, this should change how we see forgiveness, this should change how we see grace, this should change how we see salvation. It's not some casual thing, it should be serious. It is a costly thing. And in verse 26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier again of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The next chapter of Romans, I I really like this as well. Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. And again, this is another one of those verses where you know, probably growing up, I would would say some of my church would have looked at this and said, well, they just don't want to do anything. Because though we wouldn't claim it, we had a sense of what I need to do is work for my salvation.
We would have told you we don't believe in work salvation, but we kind of believed in work salvation. And again, this is not a, I'm not gonna do anything because God did it. This is, I have a trust in God to handle everything. That I'm still gonna take sin seriously, I'm still gonna take all of God's word, how he's revealed himself to me, what what what Jesus asked me to do, how God has asked me to live. I take all of that seriously.
I want to be transformed as a person, but on my best day, when I feel like I've done everything, I got up, read my devotional, I read my bible, I treated everyone well, I didn't retaliate in traffic, everything went perfectly. On my best day, your works add up to nothing in front of God. Yes? God has done it for you. To the one who does not work, but believes in him.
That sounds like laziness. But what Paul is describing is someone who thinks he can justify himself through his work. That I can earn it, I can do enough, that God now owes me because I did it. And that's what he's saying there. To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due.
Remember, grace is a gift, we just read about that. But, to the one who works, again, for himself, believing that this is this holds value before God, okay, that's not a gift, that is, you owe me now that I've done this work for you. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Notice that notice that wording there. I think the person that understands God understands that we are ungodly.
The person that works says, you owe me because I've been good. But the other person understands their ungodliness, and understands God is in control of this. God is able to handle this. God has taken care of the situation. His faith is counted as righteousness, not self righteousness, but God has covered him with his righteousness.
In Acts 17 and verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. This is God's way of dealing with judgment in the world, of sin in the world, to be able to respond to what we have done. God's justice is not just something that happened at the cross. There will be a day when everyone is judged.
I don't like thinking about that, do you? Except, if I remember God is taking care of everything. That God has handled everything that is on my mind, that weighs on me, why can't I get away from that? Why did I do that again? I know better.
Anybody else do that? God is taking care of it. And so, what we want to do is we don't want to be someone that's not accountable. We want to be someone who cares, who desires to live a godly life, who believes that God is just and God will judge rightly, and if we believe that, we've got to believe that our lives matter. That what we do, how we the choices we make, the way we treat people, everything we do matters because God says he is just.
And that should put weight on everything that happens. God's justice is not something we just try to escape, it's something that we must face unless Christ faces it for us. I don't know about you, but I need Jesus to stand before God and say, He's one of mine. Yes? Because we know, and I think we're very aware of those issues we have.
A lot of us live with guilt, and it probably keeps people away at times, Well, I can't go, I haven't got my life together. I hear that in baptism all the time. As soon as I get my life together, I'll be baptized. Don't do it because you won't. Come to God, let him handle it for you.
Allow your faith to become righteousness, not because of you, but because of what God has already done. He understands you're imperfect, He understands you're going to sin, and He did this anyway. And so, last week we saw that God is holy. This week, we see that God's holiness does not ignore sin, He deals with it, and He deals with it completely. So, let's treat sin as serious.
Let's treat grace as more costly than we even realize. Grace can't be this just word we use, thank you for the grace of God, it needs to hold weight. That by the grace of God, all of these things are taken care of because God loved us. God is just so he will not overlook sin, but he has made a way. And so, this morning, the question is, it's not whether God will deal with sin or not, because he will and he has.
The question is, will you put your faith and trust in him? Do you desire to follow him? Do you desire to have someone be that that stand in for you? To be that person that says, God, I've got him. His faith was in me, not in his own works or what he did.
He understands he was ungodly sinful. But God, you so loved the world that you sent me, Jesus, to die on the cross. And so we're just gonna invite you this morning. If you'd like to have the prayers of this church, we'd love to pray with you. We've gotten to do that a couple of weeks in a row here and I just love to be able to pray with someone and just walk beside you and encourage you.
We're gonna offer a time for that. If you haven't put on Christ in baptism, why wait? Start that today. Receive the gift, the free gift of God's grace right now. Would you come as we stand and as we sing?